Chronicle Editor
Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
WHITE ash seems to have played some important role among ancient and contemporary African communities. This does not come as a surprise as they shared a common history, ideology, cosmology, worldview and thought.
Occupying diverse environments and getting into contact with different cultures led to their adoption of different cultural practices as a measure not only to adopt new cultural elements but also to adapt those elements to a pre-existing repertoire of beliefs, perceptions and practices to avoid contradictions between the old and the new.
Innovation has always been an integral part of adapting to challenges in a new environment. There are people who are gifted to come up with new ideas and solutions to cope with the challenges that face and sometimes threaten their communities. However, in most cases , the underpinning and informing ideas, values and thought, tend to remain the same.
The new moon is welcomed with great expectations in the hope that it brings better fortunes for the community. This may range from better health and general welfare. It could be a time of peace and tranquility. Each new moon is thought to bring in its wake better prospects and better fortunes. Essentially, the underlying belief is that there is change for the better and hence the requisite chants that are performed to welcome the new moon.
In fact, what is being welcomed is the new moon together with a new promise for a better life for the community. If calamity attended the emergence of a new moon, there would be no reason to celebrate. The attended rituals and accompanying ceremonies are conducted with great hope and prayer for a better wellbeing.
It is change from the old to the new, from the bad to the envisaged good that underlies the process of transformation. It is transformation in terms of the media of expression. An idea is expressed and reinforced in several and diverse ways. It is emerging hopefully positive circumstances of the community that are captured in the rituals and ceremonies that are conducted and more particularly with regard to expressive body art.
There is, most of the time, if not always, complementarity between the various media of expression. These will range from oral to graphic expressions. Ceremonial attire, costumes, performances and a broad range of visual culture. The language and chants capture what is taking place and the ideas that the community participants embrace by way of their daily lives. The attire and choreography equally do the same.
When the Aka Pygmies and the San in Southern Africa dance in stooping positions, they are expressing their lives as hunter-gatherers who have to stalk game during hunts. In a way, stooping avoids early detection by the animals intended for the kill. In similar vein body, art also comes in to reinforce the same idea.
The one idea or form of expression that we seek to dwell on in this article refers to the painting of faces with white ochre or similar materials. Painted faces are visual markers of underlying ideas. There are designs that are executed and posted on faces as part of adornment and decoration. The women in Matobo District have had this visual tradition revitalised within the context of “My Beautiful Home — Comba Indlu Ngobuciko.”
It is a visual tradition that is associated with women. Body art in its broadest and Africa-centred sense has been associated more with women than men. This also goes for fashion as expressed through beadwork, various ornamental trinkets and a lot more. However, when it comes for functional painting of faces and bodies, as opposed to art per se, both males and females mark the transformation, and sometimes the transition in the same way and both sexes take part.
In a previous article, we referred to some communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that performed moon dances when the crescent moon appeared in the western sky. These were the Kasongo and Songye communities. In their cases, they did not paint their faces. Instead, they wore face masks as part of masquerades to welcome the new moon with dance, pomp and ceremony. Before tackling the theme of painted faces as part of moon dances, it might be pertinent to compare facemasks and painted faces.
The painted faces referred to here are not the artistic renditions of aesthetics comprising designs informed by the cosmos resulting in what are referred to as geometric patterns or designs.
Those acquainted with Xhosa boys undergoing rites of passage may be au fait with the painted bodies and faces. At the same time, the initiates will be wearing blankets for possibly two reasons, if not more. The blankets are easy to discard in the process of symbolising a stage of childhood that is being abandoned. The boys would experience excruciating pain if they wore underpants because the wounds resulting from severed foreskins as part of circumcision would still be unhealed.
When the initiates graduate new blankets and attire that are presented to them are assumed to symbolise a new state beyond that of childhood. It is the adult stage associated with greater responsibility and taking part in reproducing Xhosa society. Through cultural actions, powerful messages are communicated
In this case, adornment and aesthetics are not intended. Rather, it is functional painting and less eye-capturing. A mask that may be exquisitely carved out of wood, serves a similar purpose. The face and head are parts of the body that carry individual identity. When we get identity cards (IDs), we obtain facial images where there are several features (nose, ears, mouth, eyes, etc) each with its own particular identity and a repertoire of them all, which lends overall identity of an individual.
One without a mask has a particular identity and expression of his/her status, or stage in the unending drama of life. The mask may thus mean the person behind the mask is no longer the one being portrayed to the audience. The mask and the painted faces and bodies will herald and express a new stage in one’s cyclical development. It represents transformation that is taking or has taken place.
The crescent moon, as seen in the western sky, is transformative as alluded to above. That message and idea are complemented by a visual culture impressed on the faces and bodies. The choreography of the dances being performed also seek to capture the transformation being brought about by the moon. In essence, the broad facial paints and masks are like the curtain that marks the end of a scene and the beginning of a new one in theatrical production.
There will also be some accompanying attire that complements the appearance of a new moon and the resulting transformation and transitioning to a new stage and sometimes a status. The lyrics of the songs being sung equally express the all-encompassing and common theme — that of transition and transformation occasioned by the emergence of the new moon.
From the entire repertoire, we are able to discern ideas that a particular community embraces. A seemingly easy statement about the crescent moon is expressed in a myriad of representations, expressions and symbolisations. The varieties of expressions are not contradictory. Instead, they all contribute to the advancement of the same theme or idea. This lesson became clear to me when I tackled the English Stonehenge monument within the Salisbury Plain. The Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site (WHS). Its various cultural features are all connected and work in conjunction to advance some common theme for the entire cultural landscape.
Interestingly, new henges, the Northernhenge with three henges, have been identified and recently acquired by the state and are characterised by the circular ditches and banks. There are no accompanying megaliths as is the case at Stonehenge. Perhaps this is a pointer to developing ideas that were not embraced by the creators, builders and users of Northern henge. The Stonehenge may possess, in this regard, superior ideas that were expressed through colossal stone circles. Perhaps this may be seen as a development and incorporation of new ideas and the adoption and application of new ideologies.
Masks, painted faces and bodies do speak. They speak a language of silence and tranquility that we sometimes fail to decipher. Eyes see and consume silently, and so do the ears with regard to vocal sounds. If we did, we would know a lot more about our past and the heritage that has been passed down from ancient times to us the intended recipients of ancient ideas, beliefs and cultural practices.
We thus should not be content with the chants such as that of the BaKalanga, “Howa mwedzi wagala . . .” This is but one expression within a wide diversity of expressions that, in complementarity, deliver a fuller picture of African ideas relating to the emergence of a new moon and how it is perceived, welcomed and prepared for.
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